Photographer and filmmaker Peter McKinnon's Canon 1DX Mark II recently took a tumble while he was out on an ATV ride. But rather than let this obviously traumatic experience scar him, he decided to use it as an opportunity. Before sending his camera to Canon for repair, he decided to disassembled the $6,000 DSLR himself... on video.

The teardown takes viewers through the careful process of removing the camera's front and back, something McKinnon at one point describes as potentially "the dumbest thing I've ever done." Not to put too fine a point on it, because we like Peter, but we totally agree with him.

Fortunately, everything ultimately ends well. McKinnon successfully disassembles and then reassembles the 1DX Mark II before sending it to Canon for repair. The camera maker even provided McKinnon with a loaner unit to use while his own camera was in the shop.

It's a neat video that gives you a peek inside the very expensive and advanced DSLR, but we definitely don't suggest you ever try this at home. As McKinnon notes in the video, disassembling a camera like this voids whatever warranties are covering it. In other words, if you're curious to see what's inside, watch this video... don't try it yourself.

I've taken apart and repaired a few dozen Canon DSLRs already and I still can't get a 1D Mk II back together. It's a whole different level of overcomplicated. You gotta be brave or dumb to take apart this kind of camera.

Fantastik! when I was a kid I used to take apart my dad's $5 watches when he was done with them. over the years, I took apart more complex things, and put them back together, up to and including entire automobiles, and I mean down to nuts and bolts. I learned a lot from that, and eventually got my masters degree in engineering. don't underestimate what people can learn from disassembling and reassembling something, nor the exhilaration of having it work when your done; sometimes better than new! that said, my 5DIV will go to Canon when feel it needs work. i will admit, I did screw up one time (too much beer); that turned expensive.

I was hoping to learn something from this, but all I got out of it was a (thankfully) successful dude with a lot of money that is acting way overboard to open the DSLR, then he closed it. It was displeasure to have him keep yammering on like a child.

This is kind of silly, many repair guys do that and replace shutters etcetera. It's like someone playing a surgeon by opening up people "oh there's the heart", "Wow, look at all the blood", then stitches the guy up without doing anything useful.

I did this with my 5D but I had to remove every part of the shell including detaching ribbon cables so I could go in and solder a wire to bypass a 1.5A fuse under the top LCD display that had blown out and bricked the entire camera. Works fine now! It's really not that difficult to disassemble and reassemble. Just label your screws instead of putting them all in one or two groups like he did.

Take one D5 and one 1D X II and bang them against each other for 1 hour (if you're tired after the first 5 minutes, call some friends). The "survivor" (from operational standpoint) is the better built camera.

I have to say I was literally in PAIN as he ventured into the camera disassembling it. No way I'd ever touch it on that level. But I will say this, I was rather impressed with the quality of materials and assembly it had. But heck, for over 6K it ought to.

Wow could he have tried a bit more to be hip and cool sounding and not so boring he could have made the video 20 min longer. Maybe next time these guys could also do a website with just the necessary photos on the hardware take apart.

Your comment isn't very constructive. It's his camera, he can do what he likes, be it dumb or not. But don't get me wrong, I wouldn't do something this risky. If he can pay for it, it shouldn't matter to any of us.

Hardly dramatic. All he did was remove the rubbers and open the front and back. He didn't even detach a single ribbon or remove any of the circuitry. This does not really qualify as disassembling a camera and the phrase "this is entirely in pieces" is a bit melodramatic.

It’s different when you’re watching it on YouTube, but it’s not your camera and there is a high level of detachment. But then when it’s your camera that you’re taking apart, your fully functioning camera (albeit it with a busted mic port), it’s different. As someone who makes money with cameras I have total empathy for what he must have been feeling. Mind you, I wouldn’t take it apart, but he’s sure glad that he had not extra pieces left over lol. Anyway, I kind a liked it. The 1DxII is a beast.

I am not detached because its not my camera. If you have taken cameras apart, and I mean really strip it so far u need to label all the parts, then you know this guy is not even playing on easy mode; it's more like wuss mode.

Too bad DPReview unironically reports on this like it is a daring act.

Of course, then there's the frustration of You get done re-assembling and find you have an extra screw or two (or more) left... If you're careful in how you take them out and keep track, then this probably won't happen, but in some devices these days, there could be 50+ tiny screws holding the thing together...

Any of these methods would work, and documenting as you go obviously is also good. I was sort of making a joke here, though, but it is a problem too for some people, especially if they don't document where the screws go (either by taking a picture or drawing a diagram).

I guess I'd rather have a missing screw outside the camera somewhere, then having one rattling around inside. At least I know the screw outside the camera isn't going to short anything out, but it could also mean that something might move internally too, that could cause a short or cause issues while shooting. Screws are the least of my worries, though. I've had more issues with those darn ribbon cables that they purposely make them so short, that if you're not extremely careful, you can easily tear them, or the pigtail wiring.

Wow.... I give him a lot of credit. He took it apart, put it back together, and it STILL WORKED! I know I wouldn't dare take apart a $5,000 camera, because I know I would never be able to put it back together again.

But it does illustrate how complex these devices are and why they cost so much. A lot of engineering genius went into it.

I just hope he didn't void his warranty by taking it apart. That could be a very expensive mistake.

Well, even before that. If there were any cracks in the body or signs it took the tumble (which there may have been, I haven't watched the video yet) that might be enough in itself to void your warranty as they might see it as mis-use or abuse "beyond normal use." It would probably be consider the same if your camera just fell off your tripod or fell over on a tripod. Not covered under warranty unless you had one of those accidental damage warranties.

"As soon as you take a screw out of any electronic device, warranty is voided."Says who? The manufacturer? Sure, they'd like you to believe that. Unfortunately for them, they don't write statute law. Always remember "Your statutory rights are not affected" by anything the manufacturer says.

The statutory rights are more or less designed to protect you from manufacturers refusing to honor warranties for bogus reasons (like, "it wasn't returned in the original box so we cannot honor the warranty" etc). Canon, and I assume many others, have legal teams that write up their warranties. They aren't just some guy in an office writing up whatever. The other part is that if they have warned you that it would void the warranty and you did it anyway, and then tried to see warranty coverage, you might have a harder time getting it honored, and I think the law would side on the manufacturer's side in that case, as they warned you what voids the warranty (Canon certainly includes a warranty statement, as does most anyone else) and I'm quite sure that they are careful to include phrases like "disassembly" or "modification by end user", "exposure to moisture", "neglect and misuse" (this is a blanked phrase) that would void the warranty.

Many of them use security tape as well for this reason, so they can prove that you opened the camera up, or whatever. And as long as they can prove you opened the camera, then your warranty is void, if they in fact mention disassembly in the warranty terms. Just because you have consume rights or the statue of rights, doesn't give automatically mean that you can go taking things apart and then expect to get warranty service later on. As long as they tell you what voids the warranty, and can prove you did something that violates the warranty agreement, you're out of luck. Very rarely might you win in a legal battle, but changes are greater that you'd lose, especially if you disassembled the body and they could prove it. For example, many consumer smartphone batteries have water indicators on them so that they can tell if they've been exposed to moisture. Same goes with the security tape that you basically destroy removing it.

Unfortunately, they've both had their fair share of oil spot issues. One note is that in some of the Nikon claims, service centers noticed that in many of the cases, it actually wasn't oil that some people were seeing, but rather just dust on the sensor. There was enough, of course, to require a recall, but the number of claims people made under the recall, vs the number that were actually oil spot issues were far less, and I assume the same goes for the Canon recalls to.

A few months back, I too was concerned about my D750 as spots starting appearing in the corner of the frame (which is one of the big signs, not here and there, as I've been told they usually are in a particular part of the frame, top corners, or possibly the side, for example). But mine ended up just being sensor dust, as a $25 cleaning revealed.

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